The present invention relates to a receiver for receiving differential phase shift keying data and, more particularly, to such a receiver that can be used in a noisy environment such as power line carrier applications.
Data is transferred between two points in a data communication system in a variety of ways. In some cases the baseband signal itself is applied directly to the communication channel without the aid of a carrier signal. In other cases, a carrier signal is used. When a carrier signal is used, data is impressed on the communication channel in an assortment of ways such as modulating the amplitude of the carrier wave, modulating the frequency of the carrier wave or modulating the phase of the carrier wave. Phase modulation of the carrier wave has been increasing in popularity particularly in power line carrier applications.
The use of such receivers in applications such as power line carrier requires the receiver to reject prodigious amounts of noise. The receiver should also be designed so that it can be integrated to thus reduce the cost of its fabrication. Prior art receivers principally rely upon analog components which make integrated fabrication more difficult if not impractical.